


When the Hammer Falls

by evilwriter37



Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Amputation, Astrid!Whump, Broken Bones, F/M, Torture, Whump, lady!whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:15:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24569089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Krogan tortures Astrid for information about the Dragon Eye lenses, and what he does changes her life forever.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

“I’ve never smashed anyone’s hand with a hammer before, so this is going to be a first for both of us.” Krogan flipped the weapon in his hand, flashed Astrid a smile. 

“Do it,” Astrid said, teeth gritted. “I won’t tell you anything.”

“Really? Not even if I do each of your fingers one at a time?” 

Astrid wished she could move her hand, but both of them were shackled to the table in front of her. Her feet were chained to the chair she was sitting in. She’d been taken upon trying to retake the Edge with Hiccup and the rest of the Riders. Why they’d seen her as a good target? She didn’t know. But now here she was, trapped in one of the Edge’s caves, being tortured, or, well, about to be tortured, by this maniac Krogan. She didn’t know where Stormfly was, or where the other Riders were. Had they been captured as well? Was no one coming for her and she had to plan her own escape? Now, Krogan wanted the Dragon Eye lenses, and Astrid knew where Hiccup had hidden them, but she wasn’t about to tell this man that. 

“No.”

“Fine, then.” Krogan grabbed at her right hand, the one she favored, and Astrid was cringing. She didn’t want what was about to happen to her, but she wasn’t going to give up the information, so she had no other choice but to take it. 

Krogan singled out her index finger, and Astrid grit her teeth, squeezed her eyes shut…

She couldn’t help but scream when the hammer landed. There was an awful crunching noise, and pain like nothing she’d ever felt before flared through her nerves. She struggled against her restraints, another scream, then a sob leaving her. She refused to open her eyes to look at the damage that had been done. That would only make her crack sooner. 

“The lenses,” Krogan demanded.

“Eat dragon shit,” Astrid panted.

She screamed again as the hammer came down on her middle finger. Krogan wasn’t playing around, and Astrid hadn’t thought that he would. This was a man that knew he wouldn’t be able to get anything from her just through talking and intimidation. He’d sized her up and had seen her spirit. He knew what she was like, knew that she wouldn’t give in without some serious pain. 

Her fourth finger was crushed much the same way as the others had been. Astrid’s screams echoed around the rock chamber. She prayed that there would be someone to rescue her, or that she’d be able to rescue herself, that Krogan would give her some reprieve.

“Tell me where the lenses are!” Krogan shouted. 

“No!” Astrid cried tearfully, still holding her resolve. Gods, her fingers were pounding and she was afraid to look at them.

“Alright then.” Krogan raised the hammer again.

Astrid shrieked as it came down in the center of her hand, fragmenting and crushing bone. She yanked hard on her chains, but to no end. She went still, lowered her head, panting. Some hair came out of her braid and fell in front of her face. She refused to make anymore sounds. 

“Hm, I’ll leave you to think on it,” Krogan said. He put the hammer down on the table, as a threat that there would be more, and left the cavern.

Astrid didn’t start crying until after he’d left. Her sobs echoed around the cavern. They were much too loud, but she couldn’t stop them, not with the pain that was thrashing her hand and destroying her nerves. 

And then she made a terrible decision.

She looked at her hand.

“Oh fucking gods…” she moaned. Her fingers looked all twisted and wrong. And the middle of her hand didn’t look right either. The whole appendage was just… off. “Oh gods, oh gods!”

She continued crying, from both pain and horror. When Krogan came back he would do the same to her other hand. 

She started wondering if her right hand would ever work right again. How could it possibly be fixed? How would she ever heal from this?

Then, over her crying, she heard what sounded like shouts and weapons clashing together. She shook her hair out of her eyes, looked out into the dark tunnel that Krogan had left down. Then there was a burst of purple light and an explosion.

“Astrid! Astrid!” Hiccup ran into the cavern, sword drawn and aflame. He was gasping, blood across his face. His eyes landed on her. “We’re gonna get you out of here. The other Riders are holding so we have to move fast.”

Astrid nodded. She could tell that Hiccup hadn’t noticed her hand yet. He withdrew a set of keys, began trying one of them in the lock. Then his eyes fell on her hand, and he stopped moving, his face going white.

“Astrid…”

Astrid swallowed back more tears. “Just get me out of here.” 

“You got it.”

It took a few tries to find the right key, but soon, Astrid’s shackles were free. She needed help standing, her knees shaking. She’d been in battle before, but she’d never been tortured, and her body wasn’t taking well to it. She felt like she was going to vomit.

“Where’s Stormfly?” Astrid asked, voice tight with pain. 

“We got her. Can you fly?”

“I think so.”

Hiccup helped Astrid through the tunnel to the mouth of the cave, towards the sounds of fighting. Stormfly came bounding towards her with a squawk, knocking over Dragon Hunters in the process. Astrid got onto her back with Hiccup’s help, and then they were bursting out of the cave. Astrid was happy to see the rest of the Dragon Riders, all doing relatively well despite the fighting. 

“We got her!” Hiccup shouted, mounting Toothless. “Let’s get out of here!”

Astrid held on hard with her good hand as Stormfly took the air with a powerful beat of wings. The dragon let loose a blast at some Dragon Hunters and shot spines from her tail. Astrid smiled coldly as she saw a spine impale someone in the throat. It wasn’t Krogan, but these men had helped in her capture.

It was a hard fight once in the air, the Dragon Flyers not letting up until they were farther away from the Edge. After that, they turned back, leaving the Riders weary and haggard.

“Where are we going?” Fishlegs asked.

“Caldera Cay,” Hiccup answered. “It’s closer than Berk.”

“Astrid, are you alright?” Snotlout asked, flying close.

Astrid held her hand protectively to her chest, unsure of how to answer. Agony was thrumming at her senses, making holding onto Stormfly difficult. 

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly.

“You didn’t give the location of the lenses, did you?” Hiccup asked.

“No,” Astrid told him. “I didn’t.”

Hiccup just gave her a grim expression, and they flew on in silence.

  
  


Mala was surprised to see the Dragon Riders showing up at her doorstep beaten and bruised. Hiccup explained what happened as he accompanied Astrid and Mala to a healer. She needed it more than anyone else at the moment. 

“Astrid, your hand!” Mala cried in shock.

Astrid hadn’t looked at it in the past hours, and she wasn’t about to change that now. Tears spotted her vision.

“They tortured me,” Astrid explained. “They wanted to know where the Dragon Eye lenses were.”

“Which is strange,” Hiccup said. “They don’t have the Dragon Eye and neither do we. I threw it into the Edge volcano.”

“Maybe they have a way of making another one,” Mala suggested. 

Hiccup frowned. Astrid could see that that didn’t sit well with him.

“Were you able to grab the lenses?” Astrid asked Hiccup.

Hiccup nodded. “Got them right before we got you. I’m sorry we didn’t get there sooner. I’m sorry that-”

“Shut up,” Astrid interrupted. Usually she would have told him in a nicer tone, but she was hurting, and it was making her irritable. She just wanted her hand taken care of so she could eat and go to sleep. 

Mala stayed with them when they got to the healers, which Astrid was grateful for. She liked Mala. Astrid was quickly ushered inside along with Hiccup and taken to a room.

Her wound didn’t need cleaning, but Hiccup’s did: he had cuts on his face from the fighting.

Astrid sat, didn’t look at her hand as she held it out to one of the healers and let him inspect it. 

“This is really bad,” he said, shaking his head. “I can fix some of it with surgery, but…”

“But what?” Astrid snapped. 

“You won’t ever be able to use it again,” he told her. He continued looking over her injuries. “Are you… sure you want to keep it?”

Astrid’s stomach lurched. “What?”

“Your hand. I can amputate it if you would like. It’s not going to be usable, so-”

“I want to keep it,” Astrid told him. She met him in the eye, being careful to avoid looking at her hand. “Please.”

He nodded. “You’ll have pain for the rest of your life.”

“I  _ still  _ want to keep it.” Astrid couldn’t imagine losing a part of herself, not the way Hiccup had. She still thought him one of the strongest people she had ever met for that, for putting up with missing part of a leg. But she couldn’t lose her hand, even if it would be useless. She couldn’t! She felt shocked and overwhelmed by all of this, wished that none of it had happened, but that was pointless. It  _ had  _ happened and now here she was, wanting to cry about it.

_ Keep it together, Astrid!  _ she chastised herself. 

“I can give you something to put you to sleep,” the healer said. “That way we can perform the surgery.”

Astrid nodded. She was perfectly fine with that. She didn’t want to admit it, but she didn’t think she could take anymore pain. 

Hiccup was given stitches on his face while the healer who had spoken with Astrid began working to make a potion that would knock her out. She could tell that Hiccup wanted to look at her, but he had to remain perfectly still for what was taking place.

“I’m sorry, Astrid,” he said. “I know you’re right handed, and how big something like this is.”

Astrid nodded, swallowed past a lump in her throat. She was glad that Hiccup didn’t ask her why she wanted to keep her hand though she would experience pain for the rest of her life. He understood. 

Hiccup’s stitches were finished as the healer came over to Astrid with the potion. Her boyfriend came over to her, took her left hand in his. “I’ll be right beside you when you wake up,” he told her. He kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be right here.”

“Thank you.” Astrid felt overwhelmed with emotion at that statement for some reason. It made her feel so grateful that Hiccup would be there for her through this. She couldn’t be strong and independent  _ all  _ the time, especially with something like this.

“Are you ready?” the healer asked Astrid, holding out the bowl.

Astrid nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She took the bowl, and began to drink.


	2. Chapter 2

Astrid’s hand was hurting. It always was, always did, for years now. Someone taking a hammer to it could do that. 

And now, Astrid had come to a difficult decision. She’d been asked about it years ago, and had changed her mind since.

_ “Are you sure you want to keep it?”  _

She’d said yes, that she wanted to keep her hand. She’d thought she could deal with the chronic pain, but it was bad, so bad. And her hand was mangled, unusable. What was the point of having it anyway?

She’d gotten good with her left hand over the years. She could write, draw, even fight with a sword. An axe was much too heavy to use one-handed, which was sad, given that it had been her favored weapon. She’d gotten good at doing things with only one working hand as well. She could do dishes, carry things without spilling them, even climb. She’d adjusted to her disability, just like Hiccup had told her she would, but now she needed this. She needed this to stop the pain. Of course, Hiccup had told her that there would still be pain, that the stump would hurt sometimes or that she would have to deal with occasional phantom pain, but certainly that wasn’t as bad as this always constant, engulfing agony. She’d tried different potions and herbs for it, but most of them made her drowsy, or at worse, affected her thinking. She didn’t want any of that.

So, the hand had to go. 

Now, Astrid was sitting with Gothi and Hiccup. She’d wanted Hiccup here with her when she told Gothi her decision. 

“I… don’t want my right hand anymore.” Even though Astrid had come to this decision, and had had help with it from her lover and friends, it still didn’t feel right to say it. She was going to lose a part of her body. But, then again, hadn’t she already lost it? It was useless to her. At least, this way, there would be less pain. “I want it amputated.” She held up her hand to show Gothi, though the woman knew it very well. She perpetually wore it in bandages. That helped the pain somewhat.

Gothi began scribbling in the sand with her stick. Hiccup watched her as she did it. He’d gotten good at translating what she said. 

“She can’t do it this week,” Hiccup said. “Would next week work?”

“Yeah,” Astrid answered, trying not to hesitate. She could do this. She  _ could _ .

Gothi nodded, scribbled some more. 

“She’ll give you something to make you fall asleep for it,” Hiccup said. He looked to Astrid, eyes as endearing as ever. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Astrid felt at her crippled, hurting right hand. Her life wouldn’t be that much different without really. Just less pain, which was why she was doing this. “Yes.”

Hiccup nodded, took her left hand in his. “I’ll be right there for you, Astrid. Okay?”

Astrid nodded, leaned in to kiss him, but then Gothi stuck her staff between them. No kissing in front of her apparently. Astrid laughed, and Hiccup just shook his head with a chuckle. 

“We’ll be here next week,” Hiccup told her. “Thank you.”

Astrid felt a little choked up, so she just nodded her head in thanks. Left hand in Hiccup’s, the two stood and left Gothi’s.

  
  


Astrid stared up at the ceiling, laying on her back. Gothi was getting the things ready for the amputation, and she could hear the clattering of knives. He made her nervous, though she would be unconscious for the process. She would wake with pain of course, with a lot of pain, but it would eventually go away. What she would be left with with the stump would be dull in comparison to what she faced now. 

“Are you ready?” Hiccup asked. 

“Ready,” Astrid said. She gave him a weak smile.

“I know you’re nervous,” Hiccup said. “But it’ll be just fine. And I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“I know.”

Gothi had her back turned, mixing the potion to knock Astrid out, so Hiccup leaned down and kissed her. The kiss helped, imbued her with strength. If Hiccup could deal with this kind of thing, then so could she. 

Gothi came over with the potion, probably aware that they had kissed, but not commenting on it, even with her facial expressions. She had Astrid sit up to take the potion. It tasted terrible, and she remembered it from the time she’d needed her hand operated on after being tortured. It worked fast. She only had the time to hand the bowl back to Gothi before she was plopping down on her back and her eyes were fluttering closed. 

  
  


It hurt. It  _ hurt. _ Astrid woke, groaning, tears on her face. Had she cried during the operation, even while unconscious? That wasn’t like her, but then again, an amputation was a lot of pain. It really, really was.

“Astrid, you awake?” That was Hiccup, taking her left hand, now her only hand.

“Yeah,” she croaked out. She still felt too tired to open her eyes and look at him. She wanted to move her arm, cradle it to her chest, but she couldn’t. It was probably for the best. “It hurts,” she complained. 

“Gothi’s seeing to a patient right now, but she’ll be back soon,” Hiccup said.

“Were you there the whole time?” Astrid asked.

“Waited outside,” Hiccup answered. “I couldn’t bear watching.”

Astrid didn’t blame him. An amputation was a gruesome thing. 

It was a few minutes until Gothi came back in, a few, pain-filled minutes. Then Hiccup was helping Astrid sit up and she was being given another potion. It tasted a little similar to the one she’d had just before surgery. Needless to say, it wasn’t a surprise when she again lost consciousness, the pain fading back into darkness. 

  
  


Astrid looked at the stump of her wrist. It had been weeks since the amputation, and she was only now allowed to have the bandages off. She wanted to flex her fingers, but there were no fingers to flex. It just ended. 

“Gods, this is so strange,” she said. 

“You’ll get used to it,” Hiccup told her. They were in her bedroom together, and Hiccup had taken off his prosthetic and revealed his stump in a show of solidarity. His was much more scarred than hers, covered in burns. Hers was a neat slice. “How do you feel?”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Astrid told him. Such a thing was strange to her. How could she lose a whole piece of her body and it didn’t hurt? Of course, the weeks following the surgery had hurt like nothing else, but recently the pain had begun fading, and now it was gone. 

Gone. Pain, gone. She was free.

Astrid felt tears slipping from her eyes. She didn’t bother to wipe at them. It was okay to show emotion around Hiccup. 

“Astrid, what is it?” Hiccup asked, urgency in his voice.

“Nothing. I just… I’m free from the pain.” She looked at him, gave him a teary smile. “I’m free.”

Hiccup smiled back at her. “Yes, yes you are.” 


End file.
